Friday, August 14, 2009

J.K. And The Crew

I saw the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading in the theatre, originally. Now I've seen parts of it on TV. It's not bad, but I can see why it didn't click with an audience. It was no flop, but with a cast that includes George Clooney and Brad Pitt, I'm sure the studio was hoping it'd do better.

First, almost all the characters are awful people. Selfish, harsh, stupid. They do ugly things. I know this is a dark comedy, but if everyone is unpleasant, it can grate. Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski were full of awful, violent people, but you still were rooting for the protagonists.

Second, the film is pretty foul-mouthed. Not everyone cares, but some people are turned off by repeated used of the F-word.

Third, it's a shaggy dog story. It doesn't amount to much. (The Big Lebowski is a shaggy dog story too, which is one of the reasons it wasn't that well-liked when it came out--it's since become a cult item.)

Fourth, and I think this is the big turn-off for the audience. There are only a few nice characters in the movie, and (spoiler) they are dispatched in gruesome ways. In particular, when Brad Pitt's stupid (even for this movie) but sweet character gets his head blown off about an hour in, a lot of the audience checks out. Up till then, it was a harsh comedy, but now it's downright ugly.

But once you're steeled to the plot machinations, a lot of it works. Malkovich is quite funny. Pitt is fun. Clooney has a great scene where he believes he's found out about the true nature of Frances McDormand. And best of all, though they only share a couple short scenes, David Rasche and J.K. Simmons as CIA officials are magnificent. They're sort of a Greek chorus, summing up the action from the sidelines. Simmons in particular as the intelligent and amoral director almost steals the film with only a few minutes of screen time.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Denver Guy said...

There are films that I will make allowances for in their use of bad language. Certainly in war films, and mob films, I assume they are somewhat accurately capturing the tone and manners of speech in these communities.

But the world I live in does not involve such rampant use of fowl language (I go literally months at a time without hearing an F bomb dropped, besides in movies). I recall a comment from one of the astronauts who actually experienced Apollo 13. Speaking of the movie, he said it was very accurate as to what happened, how the problems were addressed, etc. However he said there was no use of explitives among the many professionals involved - the film makers felt it was necessary to add curses - that's hollywood's vision of the world.

I will probably skip seeing Funny People because (1) reviews are fairly mediocre (including here at Pajama Guy) and (2) I've heard the cursing is relentless - I just don't enjoy that experience.

9:06 AM, August 14, 2009  
Blogger LAGuy said...

Language never bothers me in a film. I rarely even notice it. I've recommended films and people have told me I should have warned them about the swearing and I said "What swearing?"

As for cursing in real life, it varies. I've been in business situations where people curse up a storm. Same with personal. I'd guess, by the way, that swearing is more common now than it was in the days of Apollo 13, at least in professional situations. (It's always been common in certain places. Ironically, the movies used to be a place where you'd hear less swearing than in real life.)

I have known people who are tickled by the swearing they hear in movies. I wonder if that in any way can counterbalance the people who don't like it.

By the way, "fowl lanauge"? Is that like calling someone chickenshit?

The best argument I heard against cursing comes from Kurt Vonnegut, who said it just provides another excuse for people not to listen to you.

10:46 AM, August 14, 2009  
Blogger QueensGuy said...

I can't imagine I've ever gone a week of my life without hearing someone swear. My grandmother used to tell a hysterical story about me dropping a perfectly-timed f-bomb at about 2 years old. I guess regional differences live on.

7:25 AM, August 15, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, it's all regional. Imagine what Salt Lake City Guy thinks.

5:16 PM, August 15, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Detroit Guy hears f-bombs several times a day at a high-level business type job.

2:21 PM, August 17, 2009  

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